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THE 



DUTY OF THE NEUTRALS 



Lecture given at the Ateneo 
N4ADRID, SPAIN 

January 10, 1917 



bv 



WHITNEY WARREN 

A. M. Hon. Harvard 

Member de L'Institut de France 

16 East 47th Street 
New York 



THE 
DUTY OF THE NEUTRALS 



Lecture given at the Ateneo 
MADRID, SPAIN 

January 10, 1917 



by 



WHITNEY WARREN 

A. M. Hon. Harvard 

Member de L'Institut de France 

16 East 47th Street 
New York 



W33 



m 



The 
Duty of the Neutrals 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

It is indeed a great pleasure to be able to express 
here in Spain, especially before an audience in Madrid, 
the ideas which are dear to me, and my reasons why all 
nations and all individuals who place a value upon 
Moral Obligation and on beauty, or those who are 
simply heedful of their own Interests, should admire 
and approve the efforts of the Allies and the cause 
which they are defending with such glorious fervor 
as to assure the triumph of Eight in this World. 

Citizen of a neutral country, I have the impression 
in to-day addressing myself to Neutrals, that I am, as 
it were, in my family, accomplishing a family duty — 
and that I have neither to limit my thoughts, nor to be 
careful of the language I use. We belong, you and I, 
to Nations who have no immediate need to take part 
in the actual vast conflagration, and we enjoy together 
an equal independence in any judgment or opinion 
which we may express. Nothing forces us, except the 
exaction of our convictions and the understanding of 
our destinies, to take sides with one party sooner than 
with the other. We find ourselves under conditions of 
freedom which authorize us to express ourselves 
uniquely in accordance with our conscience. This 
is a splendid position, as it places me at liberty to 
speak without reserve, and it assures me of being 
listened to without prejudice. You will judge the sin- 
cerity of what I say by that of your own opinions. 



Spain and America, the two most powerful neutral 
countries, are bound together by a tie of impartiality 
which places them in a position to discuss in all con- 
fidence, the matters of Human Interest which are in 
jeopardy in this war, and which brings them together 
in a sort of fraternal effort to consult and to search 
for the Truth. Who amongst us does not rejoice in 
such a collaboration, placed, as it is, above all passion, 
upon a plane the most pure and with a desire to do 
good that defies suspicion ? What is Upright and what 
is Wicked in the World are once again at daggers 
drawn, and we sit upon the bench of the Arbitrators, 
side by side, animated only with the same desire for 
equity. We should devote all our efforts and our love 
for Right to decide between the parties, to separate the 
innocent from the guilty, the criminal from the victim. 
May I be permitted to insist upon the nobility of such a 
responsibility? Those who participate in it owe to each 
other a moral support, a mutual esteem, the effects 
of which are bound to last. The noblest of all tasks 
is given to us, and in accomplishing it together w^e will 
have learned to better understand the integrity of our 
own characters. 

Examined from the point of Humanity, the question 
which the war imposes is to know in which camp are 
assembled the combatants for Justice, such as the Di- 
vine Word has given us to understand them to be. 
Question of the Ideal ! Where would one feel more at 
ease to treat this problem than amongst a people whose 
chivalrous traditions have become legendary. Don 
Quixote and the Cid are heroes that belong to you, 
proud servitors of the most generous ideas. They 
symbolize your race, and I invoke them now, in the 
idea that in addressing you, it is always them, the rep- 
resentatives of eternal Spain to whom I am speaking. 
When one is convinced of the certainty of never having, 



since the beginning of the war, ventured an opinion or 
published a word which have not been dictated by an 
enthusiastic desire to serve the cause of Right, it is, I 
repeat, a profound satisfaction to be able to explain be- 
fore a public who sincerely carries in its soul, by force 
of its ancestry, the Virtues, the Traditions and the 
Comprehension of that which is Upright, and of that 
which is Honorable. 

I will only talk of what I know and of what I have 
seen. What I know is, that in the month of July, 1914, 
there was in Europe but one Country whose formidable 
armaments and preparation indicated a warlike tend- 
ency. This country was Germany. What I know is, 
that at the same moment, France, Russia, England 
and Italy possessed neither in arms nor in men 
sufficient military reserves to make the World fear 
that the rupture of peace was possible. What I 
further know is, that the first declarations of war 
came from the Central Empires, that the attack 
upon Servia was an Austrian deed, that the violation 
of the neutrality of Belgium was a German deed. These 
are historical events against which no one dares to 
offer a contradiction, and which indicate absolutely 
the instigators of the greatest crime perpetrated 
against modern civilization. One cannot repeat these 
things too often. They are notable. The initial acts 
of hostility were committed by Austria and Germany ; 
they dared by extreme measures, to necessitate the 
raising of all the European armies. This alone should 
suffice to arouse all Humanity against them. In matters 
of war, as in matters of crime, he who deserves pun- 
ishment is the one who strikes the first blow, except, 
of course, in legitimate defense. No danger of 
any kind menaced the Central Empires. Russia was 
enjoying pacific prosperity, governed by a sovereign 
whose dream was to see all international differences 



settled by the Tribunal of the Hague, and who had 
no reason to interrupt its re-organization nor to search 
for a quarrel. The diplomatic notes exchanged at this 
time prove it. The Czar tried in every way to avoid 
the conflict. England, prosperous and laborious, was 
looking so little for a fight that up to the very last 
moment Germany herself believed she could count 
on her neutrality. As for France, I hardly need 
refer to the orientation of her politics, and her preoccu- 
pations. Unhappily the ideas and acts of her Parlia- 
ment had compelled her for a long time to consider as 
impossible the peril of a European conflagration. It 
is therefore indisputable to-day that Germany and 
Austria premeditated their dastardly crime, and that 
they alone wished to enlarge, by violence and by force, 
their territory and their power. Is it possible to for- 
give them for this? Outside of our personal prefer- 
ence, AS MEN WHO ARE JUDGING MEN, ought we 
not to cover with contempt those who for no plausible 
reason have unchained the carnage at which we have 
assisted for so many months; who have obliterated so 
many young existences, cause so much mourning, and 
occasioned in so many homes all the anguish which your 
generous Sovereign is trying to diminish through his 
power and by his charitable intervention. The most 
elementary sentiment of Humanity commands us to be 
indignant against the authors of the war; the simplest 
sentiment of Pity invites us to take the part of the first 
victims of a monstrous attack, the Servians and the 
Belgians; and the most natural sentiment of Honor 
compels us to admire and to appreciate the magnanim- 
ous nations who could not bear the thought of allowing, 
without protest, such a vast plan of violence and 
iniquity. 
It would seem that the testimony of events forbids 
any hesitation on our part. There is not an argument 



presented that has not the sound of truth for a believer 
in the Allies. They have undertaken nothing which 
does not conform to the rules of Human Justice, and 
to the Divine Ideal, which calls for the punishment of 
the oppressor, of the assassin and of the perjurer. 
And yet, even in the century in which we live, there are 
people who consider it is not a crime to resort to Force 
regardless of Justice, in order to further their own in- 
terests. I feel assured you are not of this category, 
and if I had not the hope of being heard outside of this 
assembly, if I did not mean to appeal to your country, 
to all opinions, to endeavor to convince more especially 
a realistic minority, I would make this debate only on 
the ground of morality; but unhappily I must descend 
a step for those who are unwilling to consider the 
question from such an elevated point of view. As a 
matter of fact, there are certain people who still assume 
that the regulation of differences between State and 
State by force is a political measure which concerns 
only the parties opposed and with which it is nobody's 
business to meddle, if they are not directly involved. 
They say the quarrels of others do not interest them, 
that any Power should have the choice of its hour to 
assure a phj^sical advantage over its neighbor, and over 
all those who in any way obstruct her by competing 
with or objecting to her projects of development. Such 
a conception legitimatizes war and forces us to believe, 
as Bernhardi preaches, that it is right to search for and 
to provoke it. In other ^vords, these people honor and 
desire, above every thing, National Egotism, and sub- 
stitute it for Universal Liberty. They admit War as a 
necessity, and, taking all things into consideration, 
that it is better to make War, when one knows that one 
is to be victorious and to profit by a momentary 
superiority, than to run the risk of circumstances that 
may be doubtful. I am very familiar with this kind of 



reasoning, which consists in making Germany appear 
innocent in what she has done, and to awaken wonder 
as to her foresight and as to her organization, thus 
pardoning her for having commenced the fight. I can- 
not allow myself to be won over to such a view ; and the 
attempt to excuse the War, as an opportune measure, is 
to me monstrous; I do not, however, want to limit 
myself to my personal opinions, and adopting for the 
moment the other viewpoint, assuming the egostistical 
point of view of each Nation, I will show the impossi- 
bility of the Neutrals to prove that Germany was justi- 
fied in her act, and that the only thing that they must 
hope for is to see her finally crushed. 

To the partisans of the War, who see in it an act 
which only interests a certain locality or section of 
the globe, I would say that one must have a very 
limited perspicacity to ascribe as Local all which does 
not seem to interest them directly and intimately ; and 
that further, in a conflict so vast, not only in a 
geographic sense, but as to its consequences, nothing 
is Local, nothing is Narrow, nothing is Limited: IN 
ALL THAT IS HAPPENING NOTHING IS NAR- 
ROW BUT INDIFFERENCE; and any attempt to cir- 
cumscribe the debate is bound to militate against 
them. They say that this immense war is nothing but 
a series of private interests. I contend, however, that 
it is YOUR interest and OUR interest. They say, that 
not being compelled to participate, your duty as Span- 
iards and our duty as Americans, is to stand aside. ON 
THE CONTRARY I CONTEND THAT OUR 
EVERY EXISTENCE AND THE EXISTENCE OF 
OUR COUNTRIES ARE AT PRESENT IN 
PERIL ON THE BATTLEFIELDS; THAT OUR 
NATIONAL CONCEPTIONS AND CONVICTIONS 
MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO REMAIN 
WITH OUR ARMS FOLDED. Finally they claim 



that every Nation has the care of its own Grandeur, 
and that it is at liberty at the right moment to protect 
itself, by force of arms against the perils with which 
it may feel itself surrounded. In answer to this I say : 
Do you prefer your Grandeur to that of Germany and 
do you not understand the formidable danger which 
she represents to your existence? I do as they do. I 
circumscribe the debate and what do I find? YOU, 
SPANIARDS, WE AMERICANS, ON ONE SIDE— 
THE GERMANS ON THE OTHER. 

As a matter of fact nothing touches our interests 
closer than the attacks upon the Rights of Peoples. 
Our very security depends upon its resjject. Nobody 
is going to tell me that the theory of the "scrap of 
paper" is part of the political doctrine to which the 
onlookers of the struggle have the right to remain in- 
sensible. IT IS YOU THAT IT MENACES AND IT 
IS US. I cannot express my indignation sufficiently 
against the authors of such propositions, because I feel 
the necessity, and propose to place my will of living in 
peace against a violence that knows no limit. When I 
listen to the professions of faith of the German 
race, which I hear everywhere, against the People who 
insist upon their Rights, what a number of reasons for 
uneasiness I find. 

I read in the writings of Professor Lasson: 
"The right of independence is not a right born in 
a people. It should be acquired with great effort. 
A PEOPLE OF HIGH CULTURE, BUT OF A CUL- 
TURE NOT CONDUCIVE TO CONCENTRATION 
AND MILITARY ACTION AS REGARDS THE 
STATE, OUGHT TO IN ALL JUSTICE OBEY THE 
BARBARIAN WHOSE POLITICAL AND MILL 
TAR Y ORGANIZATION IS SUPERIOR " ; and again, 
"THE FEEBLE FLATTER THEMSELVES WILL- 
INGLY AS TO THE INVIOLABILITY OF 



8 

TREATIES, WHICH INSURE THEIR MISER- 
ABLE EXISTENCE, BUT WAR IS THERE FOR 
JUST THAT SORT OF THING, TO SHOW HIM 
THAT A TREATY MAY BE VIOLATED, CIRCUM- 
STANCES HAVING CHANGED. There is but one 
guarantee, and that is a sufficient military force," Here 
is what Professor Von Seyden writes: "GERMANY 
OUGHT TO AND WISHES TO BE ALONE. THE 
GERMANS ARE THE CHOSEN PEOPLE OP THE 
EARTPI." General Von Hartman says: "THE 
RIGHTS OF PEOPLE SHOULD BE CAREFUL 
NOT TO DEMORALIZE MILITARY ACTION IN 
PUTTING IN ITS WAY STUMBLING BLOCKS." 
Finally here is what was proclaimed from the tribunal 
of the Reichstag by the Chancellor Von Bethmann 
HoUweg: "OUR TROOPS HAVE OCCUPIED 
LUXEMBURG AND ARE NOW PROBABLY ON 
BELGIAN TERRITORY. THIS IS AGAINST THE 
RIGHTS OF PEOPLE." 

Of this sort of thing there is enough to fill 
volumes with cynicism. These volumes as a mat- 
ter of fact have been published; and so, taking 
my authority from examples which I have given 
you, I ask you if such principles do not seem to you 
a DIRECT MENACE AGAINST YOUR LIBERTY. 
Do you not see, that for all time, and more especially 
to-day, that your Liberty has for unique guarantee the 
INVIOLABILITY OF TREATIES, of which the 
writers of Germany make so little, and the RIGHTS 
OF PEOPLES, for which its politicians, its orators, its 
captains, show such an absolute contempt, and can you 
doubt that when Germany affirms so distinctly, by the 
views of her intellectuals, that she wishes to remain 
alone, that THIS SOLITUDE MAY BE ACHIEVED 
OTHERWISE THAN AT THE PRICE OF YOUR 
DISAPPEARANCE AS A NATION. 



And again, if what I have just read to you was ex- 
ceptional, you could contest with me its value and say 
that it reflects only the opinions of a party ; but every- 
thing is there to prove that it is also public opinion. 
The unanimity with w^hich the German people has ral- 
lied around its leaders to carry the war into Luxem- 
burg and Belgium, to justify the bombardment of open 
towns, the employment of illicit methods in battle, the 
use of torpedoes against neutral flags and against 
merchant ships, the universal rejoicing of the German 
population all over the world at the sinking of the 
LUSITANIA, the deportation of civil populations in 
invaded regions, all attest to the fact that there exists a 
COLLECTIVE ADHESION TO THE DISDAIN OF 
ALL LAW, the respect of which assures your very ex- 
istence in the society of nations. 

Modern Germany, as an entirety, is a product of 
systematic education. It has for its object, the de- 
struction of the benefits of Right and Liberty, the 
upsetting of all rules, and the substitution in the code 
of International Law of the idea of necessary injury as 
against injury from which one must be prepared to 
defend oneself. THUS THE WRONG WHICH IS 
DONE TO OTHERS BECOMES THE IDEAL; 
MERIT CONSISTS IN DOING AS MUCH DAM- 
AGE AS POSSIBLE TO ONE'S NEIGHBORS; 
BEAUTY RESIDES IN THE SUPERIORITY OF 
FORCE. 

It is now for us Neutrals to choose on which side 
it is our interest to be ; to estimate whether it is to our 
advantage to favor these iniquitous doctrines by our 
acquiescence, or simply by our silence. Either we feel 
ourselves sufficiently powerful to resist any attempt of 
German violence, or else we calmly resign ourselves 
to be subjected to it; or, we must be constrained, by 
the logic of things, to protest against it forcibly, UN- 



10 

LESS WE JUDGE IT HONORABLE TO ALLOW 
OTHERS TO EIGHT OCJR BATTLES FOR US, 
WITHOUT EVEN MANIFESTING OUR GRATI- 
TUDE, AND ARE WILLING TO PROFIT BY A 
VICTORY FOR WHICH WE HAVE DONE 
NOTHING. 

But let us reflect. By geographical good fortune, 
the fact of having France or the Ocean as a ram- 
part, we have been permitted this time to escape 
from the aggression of Germany. If she realizivs lier 
diabolical projects, we will not have to wait loDg to 
feel the weight of her intimidation. If the Allies fail, 
we will by our complacent attitude, and by our toler- 
ance, be an easy prey for Germany's humiliated am- 
bition. It therefore behooves us to study the situ- 
ation as regards ourselves, and that we do not bar- 
gain with the Allies for the only thing which they want, 
our Moral Support. They are struggling for the 
lives of their Countries and at the same time to avoid 
for us the disaster of future slavery. Their bravery 
has a double object. Our indifference will have for 
us a double result: The impossibility in the future 
to claim the benefit of a Justice which we have 
done nothing to obtain, and the remorse of having ac- 
cepted, by our mute acquiescence, a complicity with 
the enemies of Humanity. Whether Germany win, or 
not, we will have contributed to the forging of the 
chains which she reserves for us. In the first case, 
she will absorb us to complete her programme of 
solitude ; in the second, it is upon us that she will seek 
the revenge for her defeat. Who will pity us? Wlio 
will help us? And, when I speak of us, Spaniards and 
Americans, or of certain ones amongst us, I mean to 
include all the non-belligerents who have the love of 
their Soil and their Liberty at heart. 

The despotism of the German race, its desire for 



11 

conquest, acknowledges no frontiers, and her vast 
plan of invasion is only equalled by her unhealthy am- 
bition. Disappointed today these assassins will recom- 
mence tomorrow, and they will attempt to succeed 
there where they have not been thwarted. Where will 
this be, if not there where we have had the crim- 
inal weakness not to combat them? I invite all parti- 
sans of the German cause, and all those whose 
principle is to "let well enough alone," with all the 
ardor of my conviction, to acknowledge their error 
and to take refuge on the side of Right, in the hour 
when there is assembled a sufficient force to fight its 
enemies, for fear of invoking hopelessly this aid when 
Germany has been conquered without at least our 
Moral Aid. 

I have lived in France since the beginning of the 
war, and I have seen day by day the effort of her sol- 
diers and of her people, first to hold back the invader, 
then to push him back. I was in Paris during the bat- 
tle of the Marne. On many occasions I have visited 
the northern and eastern fronts. Recently a happy 
coincidence permitted me to be one of the first to en- 
ter the fort of Vaux reconquered. My admiration for 
the French effort, admiration which I thought was at 
its height the day Von Kluck's troops retreated before 
Joffre and Gallieni, knows no bounds. Never has such 
a wonderful cause found such magnificent defenders; 
and do not for a moment compare the blind obedience 
of the Germans to the free and clearsighted 
energy of the French, your brothers. Imposed disci- 
pline can undoubtedly obtain very brilliant results, 
but only spontaneous sacrifices bring Honor to the 
Idea of War and justify it. It is this wonderful vol- 
untary spirit that is rejuvenating daily their courage, 
which is not commandeered, and which it has been my 
privilege to witness. I only wish I had the talent of 
transmitting to you its incomparable beauty. 



12 

Pacific citizens wlio thought that war was impossi- 
ble, who had devoted all their activity and energy, to 
the research of public and private happiness, who 
dreamed of the possibility of international fraternity 
and disarmament, were suddenly and brutally called 
to be soldiers, and, renouncing their illusions, they 
placed themselves v/ith enthusiasm at the disposition 
of their country. What a difference between these 
heroes and the people whose education has been 
directed for over a hundred years to form nothing but 
a military race. I here protest against the idea which 
consists of wondering at and admiring the force and 
organization of the Germans. What far surpasses it in 
splendor is the improvised power of a nation not pre- 
pared for war, supplying by its unanimous ardor 
the material resources which she had failed to 
provide! WEAKNESS WHICH DARES IS FAR 
NOBLER THAN THE FORCE WHICH STRIKES! 
These men covered with mud, and gay, in the French 
trenches, knew that they lacked munitions to protect 
their existences, but they knew also that Faith 
brings Victoiy. Armed with this Faith they con- 
quered on the Ourcq, on the Marne, on the Yser. They 
stopped the advance on Nancy and thus thwarted 
the attempt to profit by a superiority obtained by 
years of preparation. I wish that everyone of 
you had had the opportunity to witness the specta- 
cles which I contemplated. There would remain in 
your minds an emotion, an admiration, so violent that 
your convictions would need no further impetus. 
Everywhere, from Belgium to Alsace, are chiefs 
whose hearts beat in unison with those of their men. 
Everywhere you would have seen a discipline founded 
not upon Method, but upon Confidence; Generals who 
risk their lives in order to protect those of their sub- 
ordinates ; a sort of fraternity at the same time respect- 



13 

ful and familiar, between tlie superior and his inferior; 
an absolute good will and understanding, a constant 
exchange of solicitude and devotion. And the look of 
the French soldier who concentrates all his intelli- 
gence as he rushes forward towards death! Nothing 
since the beginning of the war has discouraged such 
men! None of the means employed by their adver- 
sary, for whom any expedient seems acceptable, has 
succeeded in making them retreat. 

THE EFFORT WHICH FRANCE HAS MADE 
IS BEYOND IMAGINATION! Pitted against a mis- 
able and brutal enemy, she has put every effort forward 
TO FIGHT LOYALLY, and the only criticism which 
the Neutrals can make of her, is that she has been too 
scrupulous in her treatment of those who have perfidi- 
ously attacked her. Respectful of the treaties and of 
the laws of war, it was only after long debates, 
and against her instinct, that she was forced to 
use the methods which a treacherous enemy had taken 
advantage of since the beginning. Search and you 
will not find her in fault. She is responsible for 
no degrading act, and every time that she is forced to 
imitate the methods which have so long been used 
against her it is in spite of herself and with disgust. If 
we really understand our own interests we ought 
to complain, and we ought to encourage her to 
make use of any method; in place of this we 
seem ready to reproach her and her allies for the small- 
est infringement of the international statutes. We 
seem to be desirous of establishing between the two 
groups of belligerents an equality as to their felony. 
We have failed to find the occasion we are looking for ! 
But, are we quite sure that it is our duty, as Neutrals, 
to search for if? For instance, if you are looking out 
of the window and you see a thug assaulting a peace- 
able passerby, would you exact from the latter that he 



14 

observe all the rules for duelling? Or else, would you 
cry to him to defend himself as best he could, and at 
the same time defend society, with any means which 
come to his hand? I say that it is time we changed 
our attitude, and that our judgment should no longer 
be an obstacle to the interest of the victims ! WE ARE 
NOT HERE AS AMATEURS, BUT TO AID MOR- 
ALLY IN THE SURVIVAL OF JUSTICE. 

You would not be able to contain your indignation 
had you traversed, as I have, the cities, the villages, 
and the fields of France destroyed by bestial con- 
querors. Of what was once a happy city, a prosperous 
hamlet, or a fertile field nothing remains but waste 
and cinders. I am not talking about the places situ- 
ated on the battle fields, but about those cathedrals 
which have been destroyed by useless bombardments, 
of those houses inhabited by a population of old men, 
of women and children, of those inoffensive landscapes 
where no battalion or convoy has ever been. You can- 
not give your approbation to these calculated destruc- 
tions, whose only object is to strike terror. As an archi- 
tect, a friend by vocation of the stones and of the 
sites destroyed, I have suffered perhaps more than 
others to see these monuments subjected to a most 
cruel martyrdom. The very idea of their suffer- 
ing must fill you with sorrow, you, who possess the 
jewels of Toledo, Granada and Burgos; and pray do 
not say, with a gesture of excuse, ''AFTER ALL IT 
IS WAR!" FOR IT IS NOT WAR, IT IS CRIME! 

Luck would have it that the French had to oppose 
their loyal courage to a low beastiality. They an- 
swered the call, but I cannot efface from my memory 
the words of the great tragedian, Mounet Sully, 
''What, we are going to fight with such people?" 
This was after the invasion and violation of Belgium. 
If the question had been a quarrel between individuals, 



15 

an altercation between man and man, there is not a 
tribunal of Honor tliat would not have disqualified the 
German, and I can well understand the exclamation of 
the great actor; BUT THE TRIBUNAL OF HUiNOR 
CONSISTED OF OURSELVES, THE NEUTRALS, 
AND WE SAID NOTHING. And so France drew 
her sword, and she gave, in order to withhold the 
aggressor, one man of every six. She created 
manufactories and increased in formidable pro- 
portions the output of arms and munitions. She 
expended an unbelievable energy, equalling in a few 
months the production of half a century of premedi- 
tated warlike preparation, and still she is not content. 
She wants more, and she will get it. The echo comes to 
us of parliamentary discussions and she seems to be 
wasting her energies. Believe nothing of it. She 
only wishes to learn, in order to increase her effort, 
not to diminish it. The tumult of parliamentary de- 
bate gives birth each time to the indisputable evi- 
dence of her perseverance, of the will ever stronger to 
conquer, and so, just as she has known how to estab- 
lish the equilibrium of her physical effort, which in 
the beginning was most unequal with that of her en- 
emy, even so she will know how to increase this effort 
in favor of further progress. THE FERVOUR OF 
VICTORY POSSESSES HER, AND WHEN FRANCE 
IS SO POSSESSED HER ENEMIES ARE DOOMED! 

Too many common traits exist between you and the 
French for you not to appreciate the praise which a 
stranger gives them. It is your Family that is at the 
place of Honor, and the glory of one of its members is 
the glory of all. For that matter, the Latin has 
the right to be proud of his children, ITALY has 
placed herself at the side of FRANCE and has not 
accomplished less wonderful feats than she has. 

Three times in the last two years I have made a voy- 



16 

age to Italy. In ordinary times one undertakes it only 
for the pleasure of the eye and of the senses. To this 
pleasure must be added today a sort of wonderment 
of the ett'ort and intelligence displayed. We had be- 
come used to judging Italy by its past and to according 
her only a retrospective merit. We visited her as the 
most beautiful of cemeteries, with our souls chastened, 
and our hearts open only to the language of those who 
have disappeared, and so the living passed beside us 
without our even seeing tliein, without our even hear- 
ing them. However, their youths were worthy of the 
souvenirs with which we consoled ourselves, for Italy 
is prolonging and surpassing her ancient Grandeur. 
Not less than she, would you have Spain inferior to the 
prestige of her great dead! ITALY, sincere, frank, 
honest, liberated herself as soon as she could from an 
alliance which was dragging her in the mud. To begin 
with she broke off with Austria, and then completing 
her program of purification, she broke off with Ger- 
many. The economical risk which she ran was great, 
but she exposed herself to it willingly, in order to pre- 
serve her traditions and her good name. 

Nowhere is the struggle harder than on the Fronts 
of Triest and the Trent. The Italians conduct them- 
selves with a gallantry which is extraordinary, and a 
modesty which is that of great workmen. Neither the 
rock, the altitude, nor any of the difficulties of this 
mountainous country are sufficient obstacles to discour- 
age their perseverance. Impossibilities are conquered 
by their will. Can you imagine, for instance, the exact 
character of the Carso? It is a series of hills, rather 
low, but composed of a stone most brutal and hostile. 
Inch by inch with small charges of dynamite, they blast- 
ed out their trenches. The Austrians in the beginning 
had intrench>5d themselves, but with much less effort, 
because the frontier, which they in olden time had im- 



17 

posed upon Italy, gave them everywhere an unjust ad- 
vantage, and they worked away without being dis- 
turbed. The Italian, on the contrary, had to dig under 
formidable artillery hre, without cover, and upon al- 
most perpendicular slopes, but he dared everything, 
and he succeeded. The work of the engineers shown 
there is inconceivable ! 

'len days after the fall of the Goritzia I had the 
good fortune to enter the reconquered city. Mount 
Pogdora and Mount San Michele, the two ramparts 
which protect, were unable to resist the Italian ardor, 
for it does not raise mountains, it suppresses them ! In 
all truth I am not exaggerating; the Italian soldier, 
and what they call their civilian army, composed of 
workers too young and too old to carry arms, have 
passed the limit of human possibilities ! The Austrian, 
on the contrary, has contented himself in surpassing 
the limits of cruelty. Not satisfied to follow the exam- 
ple of his allies in the practices of criminal warfare, 
he has perfected them. The use of asphyxiating gas 
was not enough, so he has completed it by the employ- 
ment of maces with great nails projecting in every di- 
rection, which he uses to finish off the victims of the 
poisonous fluid. One of these maces was given me on 
Mount San Michele, and I keep it because it is fur- 
ther proof to me of the justice of my indignation, and 
legitimatizes my partisanship. Nobility, generosity, 
simplicity are on one side and hideousness, arrogance, 
barbarism on the other. Compare, I beg of you, the 
pretentious attitude of William II and the decency and 
good fellowship of King Victor Emanuel. The latter 
is the soul of the army and the Government. To him 
are due all the acts of daring and all the decisions tar 
ken. He directs the struggle on the field of battle and 
in council. He is forever at his work, always in the 
places of peril, always at the post of honor, and one 
never hears him spoken of. 



18 

And now I conie to the English. An abyss sud- 
denly opened between Germany and Great Britain. 
Liberated by centuries of isolation from Saxon influ- 
ence, ENGLAND had very decided views upon the 
quarrels which interested the Continent. She is so con- 
stituted that her clearsightedness does not run the risk 
of being befogged, and when the time came to choose 
between Right and Wrong, she took sides deliberately 
with France. REMEMBER, SHE WAS NOT THE 
FIRST NATION THAT WAS FORCED TO COME- 
INTO THE FIGHT; SHE WAS THE FIRST NEU- 
TRAL THAT VOLUNTEERED ON THE SIDE OF 
JUSTICE AND LIBERTY! WE SHOULD TURN 
TOWARDS HER WHEN WE QUESTION OUR- 
SELVES AS TO WHAT OUR DUTY IS! In the 
first days of the crisis we see her hesitating. She 
attempted by all her force to avoid the war. She 
attempted to persuade Germany to reflect, and in spite 
of the fact that she was not prepared for the struggle, 
she warned the Government of Berlin that it was 
quite possible for her to enter the conflict if Right was 
not respected. Incredulous, Berlin shrugged her 
shoulders, set her teeth and violated Right. Belgium 
was invaded! And then, the Englishman calmly took 
up the defiance. I beg of you to understand the mag- 
nificence of his act, and do not try to diminish it. Since 
then England has not ceased to be equal to her task. 
Through the vigilance of her fleet in spite of the sub- 
marine campaign, she has permitted the Allies to sup- 
ply themselves. She has barred the German flag 
from the Seas and saved from inertia the maritime 
commerce of the Neutrals. Think for a moment: had 
Germany found herself in control of the ocean, and 
knowing her methods, an idea may be formed of the ob- 
stacles she would have put in the way of your com- 
merce. But it is not only on the sea that one must ad- 



19 

mire the effort of Great Britain! There she had as- 
sured herself a superiority through centuries, so her 
power does not surprise us, but on land, who would 
have thought her capable in so short a time of raising 
an army so redoubtable ? In 1914 she had 100,000 men. 
Today her armies amount to 5,000,000! Can you rep- 
resent to yourself the amount of energy and order such 
a transformation necessitates! THREE MILLION 
SOLDIERS ALONE VOLUNTEERED UNDER 
THE COMMAND OF KITCHENER. I do not 
know of any more magnificent attitude than this 
spontaneity in response to duty. Nothing can prove 
more clearly the justice of the Allied cause. Once 
again, and with indisputable evidence, FREE SACRI- 
FICE ON THE PART OF THE ALLIES CON- 
TRASTS ITSELF TO THE MECHANICAL SUB- 
MISSION OF THEIR ADVERSARIES; the raising 
of such armies without compulsion nothing but Idealism 
could accomplish. A people of sailors, the English 
changing their destinies, and in an incomparably short 
time, have become a great military nation. I empha- 
size the rapidity with which this change was made, and 
which is often contested. It is nothing short of a mir- 
acle, to have in two years' time, recruited from a popu- 
lation which understood nothing of continental war, 
such vast armies. Right only can find at its call so 
many Champions enlisting of their own free will. 

Cool, courageous to excess, slow to get into action, 
but with a tenacity that nothing can discourage, the 
English soldier under fire would rather die than 
retreat an inch. Under his helmet, which has a form 
quite extraordinary, he resembles to a certain extent 
Don Quixote, and like Don Quixote, he has fear of 
nothing. He knows that he has not the military clever- 
ness of the French soldier, who is accustomed by tra- 
dition to all the initiatives of combat, and, without 



20 

any false pride, lie asks of him advice. It is because 
of this great fraternity that the Unity of Front has 
been made possible. Every day the efficiency and 
valor of the English army increases, as well as the 
science of its chiefs and the skill of its men. Determined 
never for an instant to weaken, she accumulates pa- 
tiently more and more means to conquer. The whole 
country is mobilized for its army's wants. Manufac- 
turers work day and night for the artillery and for the 
munitions, and if the Government should momentarily 
lack energy some one is always there in whom the King 
and the whole Country immediately place their confi- 
dence and follow. Political quarrels no longer exist. 
Whigs and Tories have but one goal — VICTORY, and 
they will achieve it by their indomitable perseverance, 
even as the French with their fervor and the Italians 
Vv'ith their audacity. 

I am not going to speak of the Russians or 
Japanese, for unfortunately I have not seen them 
at work, and I only wish to speak from experience. 
As they stand, the group of allies on the Western 
Front, including the heroic Belgians, are assured of 
success. It is not the fluctuations of the struggle in the 
Orient which will influence it. The decision will come 
on the Western Front, and on this Front the block of 
the French, the English, the Belgians and the Italians 
will not permit it to escape them. 

We, the Neutrals, who live from day to day in a 
state of shortsightedness, feel the counter strokes 
of the daily happenings, and, because Germany has 
undoubtedly made great gains, w^e sometimes allow 
ourselves to doubt of her defeat. We should remem- 
ber that History teaches us that conquests due to vio- 
lence are always ephemeral. The fragility of empires 
established by military force has been and is constant. 
Never has Justice failed to take its revenge. There is 



21 

for ambitious nations a period of ascension and one of 
decline. Tlie first of these periods Prussia has en- 
joyed. For over a hundred years she has established 
her domination upon the smallest kingdoms of the Em- 
pire and upon Austria. She has despoiled Denmark 
of Schleswig and France of Alsace-Lorraine. The 
sign that the time of her downfall has come may be 
found in the coalition of enemies she has raised against 
herself. Never has one power, even with the aid of 
accomplices, been able to resist Peoples leagued to- 
gether for the defense of their Liberty, and, in my 
spirit of impartiality, I invoke before you the images 
of Philip II and of Napoleon. 

The fruits which Germany has culled up to the 
present moment, are those due to preparation; ready 
for the war, because she wished war, she still profits 
by the advance she has taken ; but it is written in des- 
tiny that the road to the Summit conducts also to the 
Precipice. Her adversaries were undoubtedly behind 
her, they do not attempt to dissimulate this, but this 
delay procures for them the advantages of seeing Ger- 
many more rapidly progress to the verge of the abyss. 
When she gets there, breathless, they will still possess 
immense resources, because they will not, in a rela- 
tively short time have used up all their means, while 
the enemy will have exhausted theirs. He who wins 
the race is not he who leads his rivals through the 
greater part of the course, but he who does not show 
weakness in the last few yards ! This is proven in the 
present case. The men and the riches which the Allies 
have at their disposal, will permit them, although they 
lost ground in the beginning, to hold out longer. Their 
inferiority is only apparent, and the extent of the illu- 
sion will only be measured on the day of the decisive 
combat. What is important, is not the present, but the 
future. The race is not to the most rapid but to the 



22 

most substantial. This, you Spaniards, understood well 
when lately you refused to associate yourselves to a 
pacific undertaking. PEACE, YOU KNEW IT, AND 
YOU HAVE PROVED IT, SHOULD NOT BE AT- 
TEMPTED UNTIL THE DAY WHEN ITS CONDI- 
TIONS SHALL BE IMPOSED BY THOSE WHO ARE 
ON THE SIDE OF RIGHT. TO PROPOSE TODAY 
A CONVERSATION, IN THE HOUR WHEN GER- 
MANY HAS REALIZED ALL THAT IT WAS POS- 
SIBLE FOR HER TO DO, THROUGH PREMEDI- 
TATION AND PREPARATION, WHEN SHE FEELS 
NO LONGER THAT SHE IS THE BEST PREPARED, 
WHEN SHE IS ABOUT TO SUCCUMB, IS INDEED 
TO MISINTERPRET THE WILL AND THE IN- 
TELLIGENCE OF THE ALLIES. By what right 
should any one propose to them to lay down their arms, 
when they know that they are on the verge of profiting 
by their advantages, and when they have arrived at the 
moment, so long waited for, when they are going to see 
definite results'? Your Government has not allowed 
itself to be the dupe of appearances; it well un- 
derstood that it is impossible to talk to victims who 
feel that their aggressors are on the point of failing, 
and who are, moreover, not in the least disposed to mis- 
take for a cry of generosity what is really their cry of 
distress. You have no reason to forestall a chastise- 
ment, which is destined for the aggressors through the 
prolongation of hostilities. All those who understand 
what even a partial German victory would mean to the 
world, all those, who are haunted by the prospect of a 
Germanized universe, owe to you a profound vote of 
gratitude, because of the clearsightedness of which you 
have given proof, in thus reserving your good offices for 
the day when the work of arbitration shall be for the 
benefit of Right justified. In acting as you have done, 
you have proved worthy of the Latin race, and have 



23 

emphasized your relationship through blood with 
France and Italy. Never has this relationship im- 
posed upon you such positive duties, for, as a matter 
of fact, THIS IS NOT A WAR OF NATIONS, BUT A 
WAR OF RACES. On one side there is the Latin and 
his Allies, on the other the German and his Accom- 
plices; and you are Latins! Latins in origin, Latins in 
speech, Latins in spirit. Rome, whose influence was so 
decisive in the formation of Western Europe, has left 
nowhere traces more profound than in the Spanish Pen- 
insula. No matter what have been the vicissitudes of 
your history, the Roman traditions have always domin- 
ated. The sumptuous language which you speak, is 
derived almost entirely from the Latin tongue. You 
owe your first civilization to the Roman Emperors, and 
it was Constantino who favored amongst you the devel- 
opment of a religion, of which you have remained the- 
most faithful disciples. The first organization of your 
provinces was the work of the Roman legates, and 
the taste which you have always shown for the study 
of the law you have derived from the Roman jurists. 
Your first national unity was realized, it is true, under 
the reign of the Barbarians, but it could only be 
realized by their submission to your customs. So 
strong in fact were the institutions and tradi- 
tions of the Latin that the German invaders were 
forced to renounce their faith and their language, and 
to adopt yours. Latin literature has been illustrated 
by your poets, by your historians, and later your paint- 
ers of Catalonia, of Valencia, of Aragon and Seville, 
owe the mastery of their art to the example of the 
great Florentines and the great Venetians. So also 
with your sculptors and with your architects. Your 
magnificent churches and your most ancient monu- 
ments bear the eternal distinction of Rome! Rome 
for six hundred years sowed in your country the seed 



24 

of its thought, to such an extent that neither the Goth 
nor the Arab were able to uproot it. Wlierever one 
turns one finds the fundamental stamp of Kome, and I 
cannot but believe that having begot your destinies 
she still continues to inspire them. 

The civilization, of which you are the issue, has not 
had for centuries to defend itself against so formidable 
an assault. All its fruit is compromised by the menace 
of German ' * Kultur. ' ' This has left nothing to chance. 
She has organized by method ! Without arousing your 
or our suspicion, she commenced by insinuating her- 
self amongst us during Peace. She sent to all the 
points of the Globe her intellectual ambassadors as 
well as her commercial and financial ones. She sought 
to supplant, in every sphere, with subtleness the tradi- 
tions of Latin honesty and of Latin purity. The big 
enterprises were in the hands of her agents. Litera- 
ture and the Arts had been gained and spoiled by her 
examples. Little by little she left everywhere her 
mark, and without doubt she would have succeeded in 
the end in obliterating the taste and the genius which 
belongs to every nation, through the development of 
her own ideas and of her own enterprises. This 
would have happened if the successes she obtained 
had not rendered her impatient to the point of ex- 
citing her to an attempt of the immediate realization 
of her ambitions. For our happiness, yes, for our fu- 
ture happiness, she lacked patience, and then we wit- 
nessed this magnificent reaction against her violence 
and brutality, reaction which has prompted the Allies 
to awaken, to understand and to measure the danger in 
which their patrimony found itself. As long as this 
danger was uncertain, so to speak, it profited by a sort 
of general indifference, but the day it squarely showed 
itself it was met with drawn swords and loaded 
cannon! IT IS THESE SWORDS AND THESE 



25 

CANNON THAT DEFEND US, THE NEUTRALS, 
TODAY ! 

But do not let us deceive ourselves, when it is all 
over, the peril will not have diminished for us, if we 
have done nothing personally to help destroy it. IN- 
TRENCHED BEHIND THE RAMPARTS OF THE 
ALLIES, WE ARE, FOR THE MOMENT, SAFE 
FROM BODILY HARM, BUT NOT FROM THE 
SUBTLE AND SILENT INVASION OF WHICH I 
HAVE SPOKEN. Little by little, and persistently 
if we do not take care, Germany will attack 
all the ramifications of our existence, political, 
commercial, intellectual, until the day when our 
national will, our originality, will have entirely 
disappeared. There where she has been unable to 
take with arms, Germany will persist in her scheme 
of absorption. The Neutrals furnish her the field and 
the possibility to keep on, through this subtle action, 
by which for fifty years she has succeeded in imposing 
herself, and so, in an hour when there should re- 
main to her no resources excepting those of War, 
she finds certain frontiers still open to her, allowing 
her to develop an unhealthy pacific conquest ; this, con- 
trary to all logic, CONTRARY EVEN TO OUR WILL 
TO LIMIT THE FIELD OF THE STRUGGLE, for 
we are thus allowing her to establish, besides her mili- 
tary front, a civil front. Climbing over the ramparts 
of the Allies she enters by all the doors that are open to 
her, and if we look closely, she respects only in our 
security that which interests her own enterprises. Our 
peace gives her the opportunity of accomplishing in the 
rear, and without danger, her work of insinuation ! Be- 
cause of us she is mistress of that imponderable 
element which is thought, and she makes use of it to 
propagate an influence hostile to all independence, to 
all established laws. She enjoys a liberty of envelop- 



26 

ment and of spiritual force, which our triple duty, as 
Patriots, as Men and as Neutrals, calls upon us to 
resist! 

You must well understand that I do not mean 
that another nation should be thrown into the melee. I 
do not come here to ask you to raise armies! Pro- 
foundly penetrated by the Grandeur of the Latin race, 
whose traditions you have done so much to perpetuate, 
I have come here in the endeavor to prove to you the 
necessity of a MORAL RESISTANCE to the Germanic 
influence. I know that it is harder to defend oneself 
against a veiled menace than against an evident peril. 
The man who is about to be struck seizes an arm and 
finds immediately an attitude of defense, whereas the 
man who is approached through flattery sees often too 
late the utility of an energetic posture. However, if 
his suspicion is aroused in time he still has opportunity 
to recover his clearsightedness and to liberate himself. 
THIS IS ALL I HOPE OF ALL THE NEUTRiVLS, 
THAT THEY MAY AWAKEN BEFORE IT IS 
TOO LATE. 

May the example of Italy contribute to this! A 
member of the Triple Alliance, through a political er- 
ror, she was admitted to judge intimately her asso- 
ciates of yesterday. Her situation was such that she 
had to resort to the sword. Our case is different, but, 
WAR FOR WAR SHE CHOSE THE LOYAL WAR, 
THE WAR OF THE LATINS ! LET US REMAIN 
IN PEACE, BUT IN PEACE WITH DIGNITY, THE 
PEACE OF THE LATINS! IN THAT PEACE 
WHICH DOES NOT ADMIT TO ITS HEART THE 
ENEMIES OF JUSTICE AND OF LIBERTY! IN 
THAT PEACE WHICH CARRIES ABOUT ITS 
VISAGE AN AURICLE SO BRIGHT AS TO FOR- 
EVER BEWILDER AND CONFUSE THE BAR- 
BARIANS, THE DISCIPLES OF DARKNESS! 



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